Search - Miss Kittin :: Live at Sonar (Chi)

I beat i beat i beat i beat i beat myself

liquidcrystal | sub-atomic particle | 03/11/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Still nobody has reviewed this yet? Okay, I'll do it.



This is an interesting mix because Miss Kittin plays alot of her own stuff, as well as some of her tracks with the Hacker and Felix Da Housecat, with live vocals. While the vocals in most of her works are true songs rather than a repeated sampling of her voice, she is more of a DJ than a singer. So this performance is sort of a unique creature.



The live singing is used sparingly and with mixed results. It's obvious Miss Kittin probably wasn't cut out for live vocal performances - the first vocals are on Happy Violentine, where she starts out way out of time with the music and stays that way. But you don't really notice. It was enough for the audience just to be hearing her sing live, and it's enough for the listener at home. Her performance of Requiem For a Hit is great. You'll hear the crowd react joyously when she riffs on the "lyrics," "I beat I beat I beat I beat I can't say that forever!"



The track list includes "Miss Kittin & the Hacker: Stock Exchange (Live Version)," but as soon as the song starts her equipment starts skipping. Miss Kittin stops the music and apologizes to the audience (in a resounding reverb that makes the whole thing sound somewhat surreal), and they love her for every word she says. You may think this would detract from the experience, but she starts right up with an excellent performance of another great Hacker collaboration, 1982. They could have cut the screw-up from the final release, but as Kittin says in the liner notes, "we had to keep it like this, because this accident was part of the adventure, whether we liked it or not." And she's right.



In addition to her own material, Miss Kittin plays a pretty good assortment of techno, including standout tracks from Aphex Twin and the Orb, and remixes by Superpitcher and Boards of Canada. Overall, it's more haphazard and raw than her Radio Caroline mix, but then again that's what you want from a live recording. You feel the crowd's energy when you listen to it and this ends up being a pretty good record."